John Armstrong Jr.

John Armstrong Jr. (25 November 1758-1 April 1843) was a US Senator from New York from 6 November 1800 to 5 February 1802 (succeeding John Laurance and preceding DeWitt Clinton), from 10 November 1803 to 4 February 1804 (succeeding Clinton and preceding John Smith), and from 4 February to 30 June 1804 (succeeding Theodorus Bailey and preceding Samuel L. Mitchill). He later served as US Secretary of War from 13 January 1813 to 27 September 1814 (succeeding William Eustis and preceding James Monroe). Armstrong was a Democratic-Republican.

Biography
John Armstrong Jr. was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1758, the son of General John Armstrong Sr. and the younger brother of congressman James Armstrong. He served as aide-de-camp to Continental Army general Hugh Mercer during the American Revolutionary War, and he carried the wounded and dying Mercer from the field after the Battle of Princeton in 1777. He then became an aide to Horatio Gates, and he resigned due to health problems, returning in 1782. In 1783, while encamped at Newburgh, New York, Armstrong took part in a conspiracy to overthrow the Continental Congress, but he conspiracy was suppressed by George Washington without a mutiny.

In 1783, after returning home, Armstrong became Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania militia, and he retired from public life until John Laurance's US Senate seat opened in 1800. He served in the US Senate from 1800 to 1802, from 1803 to 1804, and in 1804, with his last term lasting for just four months before President Thomas Jefferson appointed him ambassador to France. He served in this post until 1810, and he also served at the court of Spain in 1806. When the War of 1812 broke out, he was promoted to Brigadier-General and placed in charge of the defenses of the port of New York City. In 1813, President James Madison named him Secretary of War. He made a number of valuable changes to the US Army, but he mistakenly believed that the British would not attack Washington DC, and he was forced to resign after the city was burned in 1814. Armstrong returned to his farm and lived a quiet life, and he died in Red Hook, Brooklyn in 1843.